If you thought this post would be more about Argumentation, sorry. It won’t be.

But, it is going to be about one of my other pet-peeves of American ignorance: Karma.

Here I’m going to do something that “they” say one should never do at the start, I’m going to tell you you’re wrong.

And, the odds are good, for something like 90% of you, I’ll be correct in assuming that what you think Karma is, it well and truly isn’t.

Let’s start there.

Most people, I run into anyway, think that Karma means if you do good things, good things happen to you, and if you do bad things, then bad things happen to you.

Sound familiar?

Is that what you thought it was?

(excepting people I’ve lectured on the subject before, I’ll bet you did.)

That is not Karma.

Actually, I’m not sure what that is, other than maybe a collective wish for Justice that is projected out to be an a priori law of the universe.

Nothing wrong with that, by the way. It’s just not Karma.

So, if that’s not it, what the fuck is it?

Glad you asked.

(and by you, I mean me, borrowing your skin, but not in a creepy, serial killer kind of way, just metaphorically.)

Karma is a Sanskrit word that means: action.

That’s it. Just action.

Okay, so, like most Sanskrit words, it’s got more meaning bound up in it.

(to keep blood from seeping from your eyes, I’m going to paraphrase a bit here. If you really want to dig into Karma, look it up. Or, you know, read the Vedas.)

Karma has a few aspects.

The first is fairly basic: it is, essentially, the law of cause and effect, written in a spiritual vocabulary.

Your actions have causes that led to them. Your actions, in turn, become the causes that lead to other effects.

See, simple. But wait, there’s always more…

Another way to look at Karma is as a kind of spiritual/ behavioral inertia.

That is to say, if you act in a certain way, in a certain set of given circumstances, you will be more likely to act in a similar – if not same – way in similar – if not same – circumstances at a later time.

In this regard, we would look at Karma, more modernly, as habit.

And really, if you interpret it only that way, as habit, then you’ll not really go too wrong in your understanding.

Another aspect of Karma is more akin to an explanation of its existence as some kind of force of nature, for lack of a better term.

The idea is that Karma exists, and we are bound by it, to aid our own journey to enlightenment.

Essentially, Karma keeps you doing the same things, in the same situations, over and over again, until you learn whatever it is you’re supposed to be learning from it, at that stage. It is the teacher that won’t let you move forward until you’ve passed the lesson.

So, in a sense, if you find yourself making the same mistakes, over, and over, and fekkin’ over again, that’s your Karma. It’s trying to make you go through it until you wake up to the knowledge you need to move on.

Also, there is no good Karma or bad Karma. It’s all just Karma.

To attain liberation, (Moksha or Nirvana), one needs to remove one’s Karma. Get rid of it. Be free of it.

There are plenty of esoteric discourses on Karma in both Hinduism and Buddhism.

If you dig that kind of thing, definitely dive into it. You will not be disappointed.

But this is a fairly concise overview of the subject.

And now you can stop annoying the ever-lovin’-shit out of me by using it incorrectly.

I share because I care.

You feel that, don’t you?

Don’t you?!

Good.

We can move on to other topics.

Until next time…